Shailene Woodley Bails On Divergent Before The Series Comes To An End

There's been a ton of drama surrounding The Divergent Series: Ascendant, which was supposed to close out the Divergent film franchise on the big screen. However, due to increasingly poor box office reception, Ascendant is now going to be a TV movie, which only created more problems and questions for this franchise currently trapped in the longest plane crash ever. And the biggest question for most was whether the cast return to end the series if it were on television. Appropriately leading the pack is Shailene Woodley, lead star and face of the franchise, who has given a blunt and definitive answer.

No. I'm not going to be in the television show.

Shailene Woodley spoke with Vanity Fair at the premiere of her new HBO miniseries Big Little Lies where she was asked about her involvement with the planned Ascendant TV movie. Woodley spoke plainly and left very little to the imagination with her answer. It's possible that Woodley could be referring to the reported spin-off TV show, but since nothing official has been stated about the TV movie, we have to assume that she's finished with Divergent entirely. It seems like she's moving on from the franchise, and what the series now plans to do without her is unclear.

This news really isn't surprising, as most have seen the writing on the wall since it was first announced that Ascendant would be becoming a TV movie. Woodley had previously been surprised by the news of Ascendant's switch up, but had not flat out given an answer on whether she would star until now. She and other co-stars like Miles Teller were contracted to appear in one more film, and it was unclear if a TV movie still applied. If not, the contracts would have to be renegotiated, and it would allow the actors a chance to jump ship. Perhaps Woodley worked out a deal to be excused from her contract, but I'd imagine we'll be hearing similar news of actors bailing on the YA series soon enough.

There's been no word from Lionsgate about Shailene Woodley or any other actors departure so far, but one would imagine that their reaction must be at least similar to this:

It's unknown what Liongate's plans will be moving forward from this, but it's likely that they will look to recast Woodley's role as Tris, the Divergent hero of the whole franchise. This is just getting juicier and juicier, and you can bet that there will be a lot more developments in the near future, so stick with CinemaBlend and we'll keep you updated with new information as it becomes available.